How to read old recipe measurements and abbreviations

Old recipe terms and what to use today#

Oven ranges from University of Missouri Extension, can sizes from University of Nebraska–Lincoln Extension, pinch and dash from University of Illinois Extension, spoon and glass measures from Mrs. Lincoln's Boston Cook Book (1884), butter from the Herald Cook Book, and yeast from Red Star. Full list under Sources below.

Step-by-step#

1. 1

   Copy the card word for word before you translate anything

   Photograph the card first, then write or type it out exactly as it reads, oleo and all. Translating while you copy is how a "scant" quietly disappears or a "T." becomes a "t." without anyone noticing. The original wording is also the part your family will want to read in twenty years, so keep it and add the modern amounts beside it rather than over it.

2. 2

   Settle the spoons first: capital T, lowercase t, and the saltspoon

   On older cards a capital T means tablespoon and a lowercase t means teaspoon. A tablespoon is three teaspoons, so a misread letter triples the amount or cuts it to a third, and with baking soda, baking powder or salt you will taste it. In faded pencil the two letters can look alike, so check the amount against the rest of the recipe: a tablespoon of baking soda in one small cake is far more likely to be a misread teaspoon than a family secret. If you see "saltspoon", that was the tiny spoon from an open salt dish, and Mrs. Lincoln's Boston Cook Book counts four of them to a teaspoon.

3. 3

   Turn "the size of" amounts into spoons and cups

   Before most kitchens owned measuring cups, butter was measured by comparison. The Herald Cook Book, printed for subscribers to a Traverse City, Michigan newspaper, puts soft butter the size of an egg at two ounces. That is 4 tablespoons, or half a modern stick. A walnut-sized lump is smaller, and there is no fixed number for it, so start low and taste. Write the amount you settle on next to the original line so the next person does not have to work it out again.

4. 4

   Read scant, heaping and level the way the cook meant them

   Scant means a little less than the amount, so a scant cup of sugar is a cup with a spoonful or two left out. Heaping means a mound above the rim. A plain "1 cup" or "1 teaspoon" with neither word means level, so only add the heap when the card asks for it.

5. 5

   Convert the oven words into a number on the dial

   Wood and coal stoves had no thermostat, so recipes named the heat instead. University of Missouri Extension gives a slow oven as 300–325°F, a moderate oven as 350–375°F and a hot oven as 400–425°F. "Quick" and "fast" on older cards mean hot. Start at the low end of the range and check about ten minutes before the card says it will be done, since the cook was used to one particular oven and you are not using it.

6. 6

   Swap the ingredients and package sizes that changed

   Oleo is margarine, so use butter or stick margarine in the same amount. A "cake" of yeast was a 0.6-ounce block of fresh compressed yeast, and Red Star gives one packet of dry yeast (2¼ teaspoons) as its equal. Numbered cans take a little more work. University of Nebraska–Lincoln Extension puts a No. 2 can at about 2½ cups and a No. 303 at 2 cups, so measure out the cups from whatever size your store sells rather than buying "one can" of something that no longer exists in that size.

7. 7

   Cook it once and write down what worked

   The first batch is a test. Keep the card next to you, note anything you changed (an extra 5 minutes, a little less flour), and add those notes to the translated copy straight away. If an older relative is around, cook it with them. They can tell you in one sentence what "bake until done" looked like in their kitchen.

Common mistakes to avoid#

• ✕

  Using a teacup or coffee cup from the cupboard as a measuring cup

  A "teacup" or "coffee cup" on an old card meant the cup that cook had in her kitchen, and those were never one standard size. They varied from one house to the next. If the family's actual cup still exists, fill it with water and pour it into a measuring cup to find out what she was using. If it doesn't, start smaller than a full cup and adjust after the first batch.

• ✕

  Reading a faded T as a t, or the other way round

  It changes an amount threefold, which is enough to ruin a cake. Pencil fades unevenly, and some people wrote both letters the same size. Whenever an amount of salt, soda or baking powder looks odd for the size of the recipe, trust the proportion over the letter and ask someone who remembers the dish.

• ✕

  Overwriting the original wording with modern amounts

  A clean, modern recipe is easier to cook from, and it also loses the "butter the size of an egg" that made the card hers. Keep both. Put the translation in brackets or in a note, and leave the original line as she wrote it.

Why Culinary Card works for this#

Culinary Card can read the card for you. Photograph it on the Image tab and the handwriting becomes a recipe with ingredients, steps and notes. Tick 'Keep exactly as I entered it' under Optional settings and the AI will transcribe the card faithfully without rewording it or filling in amounts it can't see, so 'oleo' and 'a scant cup' come through as written. With that box ticked it won't convert old measures for you, so add your translations in the recipe's notes, and keep the photo of the card in 'The Original' section so the handwriting stays next to your working copy.

Frequently asked questions#

Sources#

• In a pinch: food yields (oven temperatures), University of Missouri Extension
• How to interpret can size numbers, University of Nebraska–Lincoln Extension
• Mrs. Lincoln's Boston cook book (1884), via Feeding America, Michigan State University Libraries
• The Herald cook book: weights and measures, Michigan State University Libraries
• Just a pinch, University of Illinois Extension
• Cooking up history: a library baking adventure, Library of Congress
• Yeast conversion chart, Red Star Yeast